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DHS has many unfilled positions and low morale

WASHINGTON — The Department of Homeland Security has long suffered from the mystery of morale morass.

Like all mysteries, this one has a cast of characters. They aren’t actors, but many of them are acting. That makes this such a morass.

The department’s Web site shows 40 percent of positions on the DHS’ leadership list are filled by “acting” officials or are vacant — including the top four slots.

“This means nearly half of the top positions at the third-largest department in the U.S. government are not filled,” House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, told a hearing. “(P)ut more simply, who is in charge?”

“While DHS has thousands of dedicated career employees, it is suffering from a void of leadership,” he added.

That should begin to change now that the Senate confirmed Jeh Johnson as DHS secretary Monday. The deputy secretary job probably will be filled soon, too. Johnson knows the mess he’s getting into. At his confirmation hearing, he said the DHS leadership vacancies are “of alarming proportions.”

“Acting” officials, some talented, can get the basic job done. But their temporary status puts them at an inherent disadvantage. If they are caretakers who don’t want or don’t expect to get the job they are temporarily filling, they are unlikely to provide the imaginative leadership agencies need. If they want the gig, they have to be careful about appearing too presumptuous, again leading to uninspired leadership. Either way, employee morale can suffer.

DHS lacks a “sense of urgency,” Tom Ridge, the first DHS secretary said, and that “undermines mission and morale.”

The complex history of the department often is cited as a reason for its poor showing.

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